


A Garden

by Piff



Series: Gemstones [5]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 16:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6761611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piff/pseuds/Piff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What does Jack DO with all that jewelry? Well...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Garden

Many, many people wondered what Jack did with all the jewelry he took in trade. How many necklaces and rings could one person wear? Even if he wore a different one every day for a year,, surely he had dozens and dozens more by now…

It was an easy answer, though “for the garden” usually led to more question. 

Ahhh the garden… 

Four trees boxed in a small open space, completely made of perfectly clear ice. They were of good size and mostly based on cherry trees. Jack could walk under them without having to duck though anyone taller might have had a problem. Chains, long necklaces and shorter bracelets, were carefully wound around the trunks and branches. Artistically placed for highlights were the thicker cuffs and collars. Rings and earrings and the more fantastically jeweled pieces were carefully placed as either leaves or flowers.

Jack had for quite a long time favored gems of emerald and peridot and jade in order to fill out his trees to his liking, and he was rather pleased to now fill in the empty spaces with 'flowers'. He had the suspicion someone had peeked at his garden, but when offered small, jewel-studded birds... he had to have them.

Jack knew it was nothing when compared to a real living garden, but still thought it rather wonderful. Especially when the sun was high overhead and the light reflected off the thousands of gemstones and rainbows were thrown _everywhere_.

It was a kaleidoscope of ever changing color and patterns and it made Jack happy to sit and watch. Tiny bells of gold and silver and copper hidden among the jewelry made a pretty sound in the stray bits of wind that came through. Surrounded on three sides by tall, sheer cliffs there wasn't much wind (Not HIS Wind) to threaten his pretty garden and home. 

His home was directly carved into the middle of the U shape, right behind the trees, deep into the ice with a surprising amount of windows and a door both taller and wider than it really needed to be. The open end of the courtyard, on the other side of the trees, was a tall, tall fence of more ice. For the most part it was just his summer home where Jack could hole up for a month or two during the hottest time of the year. He played with his mechanical birds, shifted the jewelry around, settled the occasional argument between his housemates before they started breathing fire...

You can't just have a garden of gold and diamonds and not protect it in some way, after all. And a pair of Welsh dragons did the trick wonderfully. It helped that in this modern age there were no knights to come along with sword and shield and an offer of a fine battle, and that the current royal blooded maidens were a bit... _too_ high maintenance.

Snowflake and BloodBorn (names chosen by the dragons themselves) were like a pair of little old grandpas as they bickered and whined and stole jewels from the others nest. They boasted daily of how many knights had been defeated, how many castles destroyed, how many maidens carried off... Jack's favorite tale was about how they had worked with Merlin himself (such a nice boy) to bring about the Golden Age of Magic. Arthur though, bit of a flop wasn't he? Couldn't even keep his princess for longer than a few decades! Shameful. Just shameful.

And don't even _mention_ that little trollop of a witch named Megan or Morgan or something. 

For the most part they left Jack's trees alone, but occasional there was a lengthy session of bargaining for some of the more outrageous pieces, usually something diamond encrusted for Snowflake while BloodBorn preferred rubies to match his scales.

Yes, a pair of old grandpa's sitting around talking about the Good Old Days. And Jack was their favorite grandchild who needed to stand up straight and brush his hair and FAR too young to be looking for a mate when he hadn't even captured his first princess yet.

Unless he was the Princess (BloodBorn always made sure to stick his snout in at this point, he did so love to rile Snowflake up.) And if Jack was the princess, then that was a whole different kettle of gold now wasn't it? 

No one these days did a proper courtship anymore! They should be coming up with a shining sword and demand of battle if they wanted to seek the hand of a Dragon's Princess. They should be declaring themselves the slayer of evil and the vanquisher of monsters. In the very least they should be attempting to steal Jack away to show their skill at thieving.

It was downright offensive how the youth of today acted! No one had any manners!

Jack just laughed at the two of them, and promised that if he got the urge to find a mate, he'd make sure they came to the dragons first thing.


End file.
